Leave it to Roger Corman to get the jump on a popular Hollywood trend, in this case the kids-in-space movie craze of the mid-1980s. Examples of such include THE LAST STARFIGHTER (1984), EXPLORERS (1985) and FLIGHT OF THE NAVIGATOR (1986), with the Corman produced SPACE RAIDERS (1983) beating all three to the punch. A TREASURE ISLAND inspired account of a young boy stowing away on a spaceship, it was poorly received (and has yet to be crowned a misunderstood masterpiece), due not to the fact that it was ahead of its time but, rather, because it’s a bad movie.
SPACE RAIDERS (1983) Trailer
SPACE RAIDERS was financed by the January 1983 sale of the Corman founded New World Pictures, which evidently didn’t leave him with a great deal of cash to throw around. As Corman often did with his 1980s and ‘90s productions, he utilized special effects footage from his 1980 STAR WARS pastiche BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS (achieved by a crew that included a young James Cameron). That footage was used by writer-director Howard R. Cohen (SATURDAY THE 14th) to prop up a lazily constructed narrative that begins aboard a space station, thus rendering the core narrative (about a kid taken “ten million miles into space”) considerably less potent (as it would seem he’s already traveled that distance).
Vince Edwards, David Mendenhall, Luca Bercovici
The kid is Peter (David Mendenhall) and the “Space Raiders” a band of interstellar pirates whose ranks include a fierce woman (Patsy Pease) and a psychic alien known as Flightplan (Thom Christopher), led by the very Han Solo-esque Hawk (Vince Edwards). Afoot in the space station, Peter hides out in a freighter, which the band steals after a poorly staged shoot-out.
Unknown Horse Alien, Thom Christopher
Upon revealing himself to the pirates, Peter nearly gets ransomed, but his captors have a change of heart after he squeezes into a tiny space and reattaches a dangling something-or-other that allows the freighter to fly. Hawk promises to return Peter to his home planet, but before that can occur they stop off at a space station, where Peter is pursued by a pair of bounty hunters. This results in Peter breaking away from, and reuniting with, Hawk and co., with Hawk teaching the kid how to blow up space objects with lasers.
What follows is an outer space shoot-out that results in the space ship carrying Peter crash landing on a planet (whose surface looks suspiciously like the Simi Valley greenlands that bordered Corman’s Los Angeles base). Peter is captured, only to be rescued by Flightplan, who’s killed in the melee. Hawk is almost killed, leaving Peter to pilot an escape pod and shoot down the enemy space craft.
Patsy Pease, Vince Edwards
Howard R. Cohen’s script might have been passable were it not for the Corman corner-cutting, which reached unheard-of levels. As stated above, a great deal of footage was recycled from BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS, as were sets, scenery and James Horner’s score, which, rousing though it is, doesn’t quite fit the material.
Characterization (admittedly not something you’d expect to see in a Roger Corman production) is nonexistent, or perhaps got truncated by the accelerated shooting schedule. None of the characters, or the actors playing them, stand out, with the ten year old protagonist coming off as a more-annoying-than-average example of a kid personage rendered by middle aged men, and Flightplan the alien given very little to do (his “shocking” death scene has very little emotional impact).
Also lacking is thematic weight: a lot more could have been done (LAST STARFIGHTER-like) with the video game parallels in the joystick operated laser shooting scenes, but Cohen couldn’t be bothered—or perhaps more accurately, the ultra-tight budget wouldn’t permit such nuance. That’s too bad, as its inclusion would have made all the difference.
Vital Statistics
SPACE RAIDERS
Millenium
Director: Howard R. Cohen
Producer: Roger Corman
Screenplay: Howard R. Cohen
Cinematography: Alec Hirschfeld
Editing: R. J. Kizer, Tony Randel
Cast: Vince Edwards, David Mendenhall, Patsy Pease, Thom Christopher, Luca Bercovici, Ray Stewart, George Dickerson, Dick Miller, Virginia Kiser, William Boyett